In the third part of his series on the design of Froggybank.co.uk, Azam Marketing’s Director of Design and Development Ather Mehdi writes about the time-consuming but necessary final steps involved in designing a major website.

We thought today would be ideal to publish the final article in Ather’s acclaimed series as it is wedding day. A heartfelt congratulations to Ather from all his colleagues in the Azam Marketing team!

Ready, Steady, Go!

With all the background research having been done (Part I, Part II), it was time we started sketching and refining the designs for FroggyBank. I hesitate to admit the whole design process took us good two months of fierce brainstorming and prototyping.

The Initial Steps

Site structure: We began by listing the details of the elements that would go on different sections of the website. We shuffled around the layout of the features endlessly. We highlighted what was most important for users and made these and related sections easily accessible for users.

Mockup designs: After the initial site structure was decided, the design team started playing around with the page elements and produced a number of design variations which were unique, usable and visually appealing.

Editing rounds: Just about when we thought the design elements were complete and the job was nearly finished, we were confronted with new feedback, arguments and counter-arguments to revise elements. The client, eDealsUK, was a delight to work with because, despite their need to launch a 100% cashback website as soon as possible, they were there with us every step of the way and supported us through dozens of revisions. We restructed and refined the site at least forty times.

Proofing and Beta Testing

After countless rounds of redesign, we were confident we had something which truly answered all the client’s needs.

The final prototypes were approved, followed by an interval to convert and implement the new designs on the actual site code. The project was completed with a final round of testing and design purification.

As for the final design as it stands today, we are pleased of its simplicity which explains the purpose of FroggyBank from the first glance.

Every design job has its tedious bits, but we absolutely loved designing Froggybank and giving it a look which is both functional and easy to get to grips with. We congratulate the programmers at eDealsUK who worked very hard to implement the prototypes so wonderfully.

Since the website’s launch, we have received tons of comments in appreciation of the design and usability of Froggybank.co.uk.

The design work was completed at this stage, but then the project was handed over to other divisions within Azam Marketing, specifically the Affiliate Management, Public Relations and Paid Search ones to attract members to the service. The site has been a runaway success, mentioned in hundreds of newspapers and websites, and we are delighted to have helped Froggybank leapfrog 105 cashback sites to become the 8th most popular in the UK in just a space of three months (popularity based on Alexa rankings, as published on Cashbacknews).

2 Responses

Ohh it took a whole year from concept to launch that’s really amazing. I’m used to banging out a site in a couple of days / weeks but i guess when your clients are high profile businesses with a marketing budget to match the position of one certain item or wording of a call to action could make the difference between 100 new users a day or 1000 new users a day.

I really liked this series of articles, especially the first as it explained alot about the relationship with edeals and the webdesign department and how much work it really takes.